Just thought it might be worth starting a new thread where those of us already in Oz can give examples of what we are spending each week/month. The threads in FAQ are a year or so old, so this will give a more current view to the people who need this info.

I shall kick it off:
We are paying $265 per week to rent in Marion, our 3 bed house has 2 living rooms and a good sized garden, and ensuite/walk in robe to the main bedroom.

Household shopping - my budget is $250 per week for a family of 4. Sometimes this stretches to cover $50 of diesel, sometimes not...

Kids school fees - approx $150 per year for primary, $250 for year 8/9 (more for older years). This does not include uniform, and for high school all exercise books etc have to be provided by you.

Broadband internet - we pay around $50 per month for unlimited use. There are cheaper options, most with a cap to how much data you can access per month.

Foxtel (only way to get decent tv... we can hardly even receive a picture at all where we live otherwise) $82.80 per month for a fairly basic subscription.

Not sure about bills offhand, I'll dig them out and add on later.

We haven't sorted medical insurance, though if we decide to stay long term we would regard that as a necessity.

Ok so I will add what I can too here goes
- rent $290 per week 4 bed large house coro valley (paid 12 months up front)
- shopping bill $250-300 per week 2 adults 2 kids
- petrol $35-40 per week (me) $70 per 2.5 weeks (Darren)
- school fees $1000 per term
- 2 new uniforms $600 each (private schools)
- Internet $29 per month dial up
- foxtel $71 per month
- electricity bill $211 this month (only electric in house no gas)
- car rego $550 for the year
- telephone bill approx $100 per month

so thats all I can think of right now if I remember anything I will add it
C
XXX

Ok heres mine !!(remember we have 4 kids so bills always bigger than the norm :doh: )This is what I can remember paying in last few days !!


- Have our own house now but did rent old 4 bedroom at $330 per week(Henley Beach)

- Groceries average at $350 per week (usually more if need shampoo etc ) This DOESNT include alcohol !! as you cant buy it with your food shop

- Petrol approx $30 per week (Ian has comp car )

- Electric bill $469 (for 3 months )

- Gas (havent had one yet !)

- Broadband $69.95 per month (Big Pond)

- SA water quarterly charge $ 335

- $6500 orthodontist !!


Not much change at the end of the month !!


JulieWxx

Heres ours,

Rented 3 bedroom, 2 way bathroom, kitchen/living area, laundry room, spa, garage in Aberfoyle Park $230 p/week.

Shopping for food for 4 $150 p/week

Petrol $50 p/week

broadband telstra bigpond $69.90 p/month unlimited

not had bill for gas/electri yet as only been here 3 weeks

$120 Kyle school for the year at Aberfoyle Hub Primary school.

uniform extra.

Good TV reception so havent got cable (working on hubby though! tv is bad) so free.

Kindergym for Katie, $20 to join and $5.50 per session.

Cant think of anything else.

Libby and John

From a bloke's point of view, here's mine

Fuel (L.P.G). . . . . $25 a week, since I travel 30 miles to and from work = 300 miles a week, Monday to Friday in my car
Car registration (includes 3rd Party bodily insurance) each year . . . . $554

Car third party property insurance, to pay for that Porsche I might clobber . . . . . . $97 a year

Oil, points and plugs every 10,000 kms (6,000 miles) . . . . about $60 every 5 or 6 months

No outlay on smokes . . . . gave them away once they hit $3 a packet in 1989, but they are nowadays about $10 for a pack of 25 smokes last time I looked.

Beer, Port, Sherry and Wines . . . about $10 to $20 a week

Daughter's private school fees . . . . $4,200 a year + $500 school building fund (tax deductible)

Uniform . . . . $300

every time she opens her mouth . . . . . $50!

Rates on my 8 acres for all local gov't services, e.g. library, fire services, etc. . . . . $950 a year.

Private health subscription for full private hospital costs, 80% rebate on dental, glasses, physio, chiropractor, etc. for all the family. . . . 108.90 a fortnight = $2,831 a year

Free meat, as we slaughter our own beef and mutton.

Eggs, six daily. . . . chook feed $15 a month

Bread, wholemeal or multi-grain, 2lb loaf, 5 times weekly with Panasonic bread maker . . . . $5 a week.

Free firewood . . . . and therefore, free heating bills . . . as we scrounge from a free firewood source next to my work! . . . $2 a year for chainsaw fuel.

ISDN (128 Kbs) internet subscription + phone connection with Telstra . . . $79.95 monthly.

Fox-Tel TV monthly package, with all the bells and whistles . . . . $97.80

Ginnie gets $250 for groceries a fortnight for three of us.

electricity bill . . . . . about $300 a quarter.

Mobile phone bills, Vodafone, 2 mobiles, $490 worth of calls . . . . $115.10 two-monthly (60 days)

Gas (lpg) for the stove and oven . . . . . $71 every 10 months + $24 bottle rental each year.

Thanks guys, an excellent thread much appreciated :D

Hi,
this is ours:

Council Tax $1061 (annually)

Grocery shopping $150-200 a week

Elec bill $200 (quarter)

Gas Bill $170 (quarter)

Telephone Bill $230 a month including mobile

Foxtel $71 a month

Water Bill $196 (quarter)

Car Rego $660 (annually) x2 as both cars over 3.5 litre

Car ins fully comp 1x $660 1x $470

Petrol $50 (fortnight) for me $100 sometimes more a week for Nick

Primary school fees $400

Swim school fees $280 a term (however the kids get free swimming at other times if you pay up front , well worth it)

Guide fees $160 ayear to guide house for membership, then $50 a term to unit

Take away on a thursday - Macdonalds $12 for kids 2 Pizzas for us $15

Wine/ Beer etc $30-50 a week


We live well and have a great time on approx $60,000 a year

Liz

We are coming over in August. I have 2 kids 3 and 6 and I understand that as we have permanant residency we can get child allowance.

Can anyone tell me how much that would be for 2 children?

Many thanks

Ann

Hi Ann
The CHB equivalent is called Family Tax Allowance, the website's over in either Links or FAQ, can't remember offhand. I think they have a calculator where you can put in your expected earnings etc and see what it comes up with.

With 2 kids we get around $85 per fortnight but it does depend entirely on your earnings level.

There's also help with childcare costs available, again dependant on earnings.

This may be an interesting link if you have not come across it before http://www.australia-migration.com/page/Co...g_calculator/95

Thanks for starting this Elaine - I have been meaning to do it myself for weeks!!

Libby and Ginnie - I want to come shopping with you both and get some tips!! :lol: My main bugbear is how much I spend at the supermarket as we don't exactly have 'champagne tastes'!

Our costs as follows ($ per month unless otherwise stated):-

Council rates - 85
Life insurance - 110
House Insurance - 47
Contents insurance - 30
Car insurance - 25
Petrol - 150
Public transport - 45 (Bruce rides to work 3 days a week and catches the bus the other 2 - well we do live up a big hill! :lol: )
Electric - just got one for $542 for 3 months!! (we do not have gas)
Water - 60
Phone - 95 (includes Telstra, mobile and phone cards for UK)
Groceries - 900 (trying to reduce to 750!!)
Takeaways - 30 (2 pizzas + garlic bread twice a month!)
Work lunches - 40 (Friday lunch for Bruce - he takes sarnies the rest of the time)
Eating out / Entertainment - 300
Childcare for Ava - 180 (1.5 days childcare per week)
School fees - $260 / year for primary
Uniform - just spent $85 on winter uniform for Max. Luckily it is navy and he already had some bits in his wardrobe that he can wear for school

Of course then you have - clothes, holidays, weekends away, gift giving & Christmas, hairdressers, DIY on our house (can see a lot going that way over next year or 2!), bank charges (yes, get used to it), dentist, medical costs (yes, get used to that too!), car rego and servicing, charity/church, my husbands obsession with upgrading our computers on a regular basis....and you can add quite a bit on top of that. :lol:

Our household income is in the $70-80k range, we own one car, have a small mortgage (which we are trying to pay off in 16 years rather than 25) and salary sacrifice 10% into Bruce's pension. We do not have foxtel and we get free internet access through Bruce's work (his only perk). We socialise mostly in our home or that of friends but do go out for the odd lunch and to the cinema.

We have been here 10 months and got very excited last month when we actually spent less than we earned for the first time :ph43r: . So, newbies....if you’re coming here to get ahead financially, you are probably not! Still the beach and the beautiful weather is free and we LOVE it :D

Claire

PS - Family Tax Benefit for our income range is Part 1 - $85 a fortnight, and Part 2 - $114 a fortnight (we haven;t been collecting part 2 so we are looking forward to a small windfall from Centrelink :cool shake:

This is so helpful and reassurring, does anyone know how much a smaller one or two bed place might be to rent?

Thanks :clap:

This is really fantastic information for all of us on our way. Thanks so much to everyone who have contributed so far.

The one question which I would love to have answered though is how much tax will be deducted from our pay. I know what the rates are, but how much does that actually equate to in real terms, e.g. on a salary of £60 000 a year, how much would we actually have in our pockets each month?

Annette
:dance:

Only by researching somewhere like www.realestate.com.au.....

Really useful information everyone - thanks.


Liz, you didn't say whether you pay a mortgage/rent (don't want to know the nitty gritty!!!), but we should be earning around $60K and am interested if your "living well" includes this as well!



Also, the following web site is good for calculating what your tax etc. would be - just answer the few questions and calculate.....


www.yourmortgage.com.au/calculators/paye


Perhaps someone in Oz could confirm if it is accurate!

Thanks again.


STEPH

Annette,

You should be able to work that out from the tax bands as there is no NI contribution equivilant to throw it out! Also there is a calculator for Family Tax Benefit which I think was mentioned on another thread. This can make a big difference to boosting the family income. Even earning in the $70-80 bracket (which is considered good for Adeliade) we qualify for almost $10k worth of family tax benefit. I also get a percentage off my daughters childcare (the calculator tells you what that would be too - counts for pre-and post school care and vacation care as well as daycare).

HTH,

Claire

Steph,

We have a small mortgage of $75,000 until we get our bond money back at the end of the year and this works out to be $400 a month.
Hope this helps in your calculations.

Liz

Thanks Liz. We are anticipating around a $150,000 one - do you think you could cope with the extra??????


STEPH

This is a great post - thank you.
Its really helpful to know the cost of living. having only ever been on holiday in Austrailia we never look at day to day living expenses.
Looks like we will both have to work!
Lynne

scary when you see it written on paper, but still people live there on that, we will have to adjust and be broke for a while, i been told that tradesmen are still considered low down on the social ladder and plumbers wages are still poor on paye, :blink:

One thread that I pick up on here is that if you can capitalise sufficiently from the sale of your home in Britain to pay outright, or only need to take a small mortgage out in Australia, then your family's spending income and standard of living are improved out of sight.
This can mean the difference to constantly watching the pennies or being able to afford to splash out when you like.
Personally, I hate being broke all the time and much prefer my money in my own pocket than know it to be going off in some bottomless pit called a mortgage for the next few years . . . . . soul destroying!
Been there . . . . done that!

HI STEPH,
Yes no problem with a $150,000 mortgae , probably be about $900 amonth.(still less than average rental prices)
We live well and mangae to save a bit aside now that we have nearly finished our renovation on the house and bought new furniture, carpets etc.
Liz

...but having said that, there are quite a few bills etc that the landlord pays if you are renting! For instance we just pay the quarterly water charge of about $30 or so and he pays the rest. I believe there's some sort of council tax equivalent but he pays that so I really don't know the details!

On a mortgage of 150k$ we have been quoted repayment of about $1043.00 per month, interest rate 7.32%pa . This example was just on a variable interest rate and would differ if we chose a different option ie fixed rate etc.

Thanks all - it is good to get this sort of idea about the money side of things. For us, the main plus is being able to buy a house that we could only dream of buying in the UK. Can't wait.......

STEPH

Liz - have (or just about to!) pm you!

Yes, its quite reassurring, and appreciate all your efforts in typing it up thanks also for being realistic very helpful. :lol:

Thanks Claire,

We're coming over on a SIR visa, so won't qualify for any of this. Did work out the likely take-home pay, so I'll have to start looking for a job, it seems! Not bringing out much money, so you people making vast sums of money out of your house sales, consider yourselves lucky!

We'll have to start from scratch .......again!

Annette
:dance:

Just a thought for you guys thinking on mortgages then if you pay weekly or fortnightly instead of monthly then it obviously gets paid off alittle quicker......just a thought

cheers

scott

Brilliant thread,,thanks everyone for your input,,Good idea about paying your mortgage off fortnightly to finish it and work out much less in the long run,

Suppose whatever your earnings or assets, you have to cut your cloth accordingly .which i`m not worried about really as you have so many things you can do for free there.

DEBBIE :D

We were told that average spending for new migrants was $900 a week.

Seems a little high to me but cheaper than living in Germany where i work.

Is this about right?

I suppose it takes a little time to adjust to the different lifestyle. We're a couple of years away from being read to move but the financial aspect is a worry.

Mark and Maire :what?: :what?: :what?:

Well, we're over the $500 mark with rent and food/household shopping before you start taking bills into account.

Cheers Elaine, I'll get saving a little bit harder then.


:o :blink: :blink: :blink:

Mark

well here goes!
grocerys; $200 a week
electric; $220 per quarter
gas; $170 per quarter(summer)
no mortgage or rent
foxtel; $90 a month
broadband unlimited; $70 a month
phone;$35ish a month
fuel;$50 a week
soccer,bowling,socialising;$150 a week
water;not sure!!!!
council tax;$1,045 a year
rego;$1800 a year

thats for family of 4 with 2 cars, 4 bed house,
laura